112 DANGERS IN 



plunged the crew repeatedly into the water. Four 

 of them, after each immersion, recovered themselves 

 and clung to the boat ; but the other three were 

 dro^vned before assistance could arrive. The four 

 men being res(iued, the attack on the whale was 

 continued, and two more hai-poons were struck. 

 But the whale, irritated instead of being enervated 

 by its wounds, recommenced its furious attack. 

 The sea was in foams; its tail and fxus were in 

 awful play; and, in a short time, hai-poon after 

 harpoon drew out, and the fish escaped. 



"We produce the folloM-ing account, not because 

 we believe it refers to the Greenland Whale (we 

 think it did not), but because the adventure elicited 

 the statement, that the same feat is often exhibited 

 by it ; as is true, we believe, of all the larger genera. 

 Dr. Foster, indeed, in Cook's Voyages, very clearly 

 tells us he saw it in the southern rorqual, as will 

 be found in our accoimt of that animal. The fol- 

 lowing anecdote is extracted from the interesting 

 fragments of Captain B. Hall, and occmTcd when 

 that gentleman was midshipman on board his ma- 

 jesty's ship Leander, which was lying at the time in 

 the roads of Bermuda, the locality already signalized 

 on page 73. As on the former occasion, a great 

 whale, between fifty and sixty feet in lengi;h, which 

 was embayed within the coral rocks, and s^A-imming 

 about the vessel, soon attracted the attention of the 

 crew. All hands crowded into the rigging to see it 

 floundering about, tiU at length some one proposed 

 to pay him a visit m one of the ship's boats, " and 



